Louisiana Axe Murders: Clementine Barnabet and the Church of Sacrifice

0:00 Clementine Barnabet was born in the year 1894, during a tumultuous time when Black people were expected to submit to white supremacy in exchange for meager education and opportunities. While WEB Dubois made history as the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, countries like France and Russia formed opportunistic military alliances. Meanwhile, William Kennedy Dixon patented motion picture films and Coca-Cola began its rise to global domination. But amidst these so-called advancements, the bubonic plague ravaged Hong Kong, leaving thousands dead. This was the world Clementine entered as she lived with her parents, Raymond Barnabet, a petty criminal prone to violent outbursts towards his family, and Nina Porter.

0:50 They moved around often and finally settled in Lafayette, LA, where they lived in poverty among their unclean, deceptive, corrupt neighbors. The family's involvement with the Church of Sacrifice, a cult that believed in human sacrifice as a means to wealth and eternal life, only added to the turmoil of their lives. At just 17 years old, Clementine rose to a position of leadership within the cult. Her childhood was filled with neglect and mystery, often overshadowed by the struggles of African Americans in southern Louisiana at the time. Lynching was rampant, and many black people were forced to leave in search of better opportunities elsewhere. Yet amidst this injustice, movements like the NAACP fought for civil rights for families like Clementines. Living conditions were poor, and homes were made from scraps of material leftover from wealthy homes. Mental illness may have also been present in Clementine's life, but little was known or understood about it during that time period.

1:56 It was no secret that her father had been a philandering and abusive man. She had suffered through his brutal treatment, as had her mother and brother. One can only imagine the lasting scars this would leave on a young girl's psyche. But when she joined the cult, she quickly rose to become their priestess, a position of power and control that must have been exhilarating for someone who had been under her father's oppressive grip for so long. And while leading this cult that believed in sacrificing humans, it is rumored that Clementine committed her first murder. A family of four in the nearby town of Rayne, LA.

2:37 This area was made-up of small towns along the Southern Pacific Railroad line, providing ample opportunities for undetected movement. The victims were never identified by race, but based on my research, I believe they were likely a black family. According to newspaper clippings from 19 O 9200, armed men with bloodhounds were on the hunt for the perpetrator who had assaulted Miss Edna Opelousas before barbarically slaughtering her and her three children. His capture and inevitable lynching were expected to occur within hours. Clementine herself came from an esteemed Louisiana family that held ownership over the town of Opolis. But as tensions escalated and accusations flew, even women were not safe from arrest in this small community where lynchings were a looming threat.

3:31 It was a dark night when Edna and her children met their grizzly end, bludgeoned to death with a merciless axe that hacked at their bodies, leaving them dismembered and decapitated in a macabre display. Two years passed before another body was found, that of Walter Byers, his wife and young son, all brutally murdered in the same manner. Their skulls split. Open and their bed sheets soaked with blood with no signs of forced entry. It was believed that the killer had entered through the back window, and once again the weapon of choice was an axe left stained with blood and propped up next to a bucket filled with their life force. The local newspaper dubbed it the most savage slaying in the history of this region.

4:16 But just a month later, another family fell victim to the same fate. The Andrus family, parents and two children, all killed in identical fashion. The mother and father were positioned kneeling by their bed as if frozen in prayer before meeting their brutal end. The blood stained axe lay at the foot of their bed, a gruesome scene that left the police reeling. They quickly realized that these murders were connected all the work of a single horrifying monster. Just a month later, another family in Texas met the same horrific fate. The railroad ran through this area, providing a potential escape route for the killer.

4:58 The authorities scrambled for leads, but with limited forensic technology of the time, no DNA, no luminol, no tire tracks to analyze, they faced an uphill battle. But then Hope appeared in the form of a woman's confession to her friend about her suspicions of her lover's involvement in the murders. And who was this lover? None other than Clementine's father, Raymond. He was arrested and his family questioned. His wife and children testified against him, recounting how he had returned home late on the night of the murders with blood and brain matter on his clothes. His son even claimed that his father had bragged about committing the heinous acts, citing twisted justifications from their cult's beliefs that the victims deserved it for disobeying messages from God.

5:51 Both Clementine and Zephyrin describe their terror of their own father and how it was safer for everyone if he was locked up. After all, he was a lifelong criminal. Raymond was found guilty and sent to prison, but yet another murder occurred while he awaited his sentence. Norbert Randall and four of his loved ones brutally killed in Lafayette using the same method. A fatal blow behind the right ear with an axe. But Norbert was shot in the head, a brutal end to his life. His daughter returned home to a gruesome sight, realizing too late that she had been spared from witnessing her father's murder. The killer was still at large and fear gripped the town of Lafayette.

6:37 A gathering was held at Good Hope Baptist Church where citizens urged each other to lock their doors and keep weapons close by for protection. Then a witness came forward claiming to have seen Clementine prowling around the Randall residence. Everyone knew who they were talking about immediately. The infamous Clementine known for her strange ways. Police searched her home and found a dress covered in blood and brain matter. The door latch was also smeared with blood. Both Clementine and her brother were arrested. Zephyrin easily provided an alibi for the night of the murders, while Clementine could not.

7:17 Their home was searched and more damning evidence was discovered in her closet, clothes soaked in blood. Initially she denied any involvement but eventually confessed. At first, she blamed her cult partners, claiming they wanted to test a voodoo charm for protection, but then she turned the finger to her brother, alleging that he was responsible for the killings. However, during her testimony, she absolved her father of any role in the murders, ultimately saving him from execution. Despite his cruel nature, she insisted that he did not participate in the heinous acts. A newspaper article described Clementine's courtroom outburst as she laughed maniacally and rolled her eyes back, revealing only slivers of pupils.

8:06 She recounted how she had snuck into the Randall family's cabin on a Sunday night with an axe hidden in her dress, seeking retribution for their defiance against the church. She coldly described how she swiftly murdered the sleeping couple and their four children with calculated swings of her axe. The youngest children were killed instantly with one blow each, while she mercilessly hacked at the bodies of the older children, leaving them unrecognizable. As she finished her harrowing tale, she swayed back and forth in her chair, a vacant look in her eyes. And that ain't all, she said with a twisted smirk. I took pleasure in caressing their lifeless bodies after I hacked them into pieces.

8:52 She tried to justify her heinous actions by claiming she only killed the children to save them from becoming orphans. But there was more to this twisted story. Norbert Randall, brother-in-law of Alexander Andrus, was also involved in the sacrificial church at the center of these murders. It seemed like everyone in that community had ties to the gruesome acts being committed The Christ sanctified Holy Church where the murders occurred on Sunday nights when the worshippers were caught up in a fervent religious frenzy. Clementine didn't act alone. Some of her victims were accomplices as well. One crime scene even had a chilling Bible verse scrawled on the wall in blood. When he maketh the Inquisition for blood, he forgets. Not the cry of the humble.

9:42 After each murder, the killers would perform elaborate rituals and chance to appease the teachings of their twisted church and throw off any potential investigations. But despite their efforts, Clementine eventually confessed to killing 35 people and was sentenced to life in prison at Angola State Penitentiary at just 18 years old. In 1913, she attempted to escape but was caught and underwent a procedure that supposedly restored her mind, most likely a lobotomy. But even that couldn't erase her dark deeds and the horrors she inflicted on so many innocent lives. In the hot, humid Louisiana, August of 1923, Clementine Barnabet was released from prison and vanished without a trace.

10:32 Some say she disappeared into thin air decades later. A woman visited her centenarian grandmother in 1985 and heard the tale of Clementine. After her grandmother's death, she stumbled upon an aged portrait of her grandmother that bore a striking resemblance to Clementine. It is plausible that she may have assumed a new identity to evade detection, but the mystery of whether or not this woman truly was Clementine remains unsolved. In our second story, we delve into the tragic fate of Eskatapa Jane Doe, a victim of one of the most notorious serial killers in history, Samuel Little. During his life, Little confessed to taking the lives of over 90 women, and authorities have reason to believe that Eskatapa Jane Doe was one of them. It wasn't until September of 2021, after years of being known only as a petite black woman with a gold front tooth found near a Mississippi highway, that she was finally identified as Clara Birdlong, a name that held both fear and sorrow for her family.

11:37 But it wasn't until January that her DNA was matched to her 93 year old grandmother, finally bringing closure to this unsolved case and giving Clara the recognition and dignity she deserved. However, the investigation was far from finished. This year, law enforcement spoke with a witness who shared the account of their final moments with Clara. She was. Reportedly last. Seen in her hometown of Lafleur County, Mississippi, with a black man who claimed he was headed to Florida. Sadly, the witness never saw Clara again. Samuel Little lived a long life filled with unlawful. Acts. Such as theft, assault, rape and murder.

12:19 And he travelled across the state committing heinous crimes. His reign of terror. Is said to have lasted from 1970 to 2005, but it's believed that he may have started even earlier in the 1960s and continued until as late as 2012, when he was finally convicted of multiple offenses. His victims were subjected to sexual violence and brutal beatings before being strangled. Little received 4 consecutive life sentences without any chance for parole. Just one month before his death, he admitted to two additional murders, one of which another man had been wrongly imprisoned for. News 5 investigates a. Cold case solved after 44. Years Tonight we spoke exclusively to an investigator and the family of the victim known for decades as Escatawpa Jane Doe.

13:09 Gabby Easterwood's been following the story for quite some time. Gabby, how was this case finally solved? Well, some new technology, Peter. And this year, investigators were able to use her DNA to create a family tree and eventually identify her. Clara Bird Long's body was dumped in 1977 along Interstate 10 in Jackson County, Mississippi. Investigators believe she was murdered several months before the remains were found, and she was killed by a notorious serial killer, Sam Little, 44 years after her brutal murder. We now know her name, Escatapa Jane Doe, identified by DNA as Clara Birdlong of Greenwood, Ms.

13:53 Birdlong family was very small, so it's not that many of us. And Isaac Birdlong says his cousin Clara was a free spirit. While most of the family stayed rooted in the Mississippi Delta, Clara ventured out. She was, she was, she was a jokester. She always had interesting stories to tell, so when we would go visit her we just listened to her adventures about her travels and stuff. Those stories stopped when Isaac was 16. Clara hit the road, never to be heard from again. A drifter, the kind of woman Pascagoula police's Lieutenant Darren Versauga says would have caught the eye of the US, is most prolific serial killer. And that would be right up Sam Little's alley. Sam Little confessed to Clara's murder and 92 others before he died in a California prison in 2020. If she actually went to a horror. But just listen to Sam Little and his confessions, what he did and how he treated them.

14:44 Little remembered gruesome details about the killing, but with so many victims, he couldn't recall Clara Birdlong's name. In fact, for decades no one made the connection and told Pascagoula police started digging into cold cases and. In doing all this background information and all this finding these cases that nobody even knew existed, I found the skeletal remains of who we now know as Clara Birdlong. Then the case began to break when Versauga put little on the Mississippi coast in 1977, arrested in Pascagoula for a petty crime there the same year, Clara was killed. But back then, missing African American woman just wasn't a priority for police.

15:30 Especially in the 70s, especially in the South, if she had come over here somewhere that, you know, they were like, who are they going to call? Who was going to get up out of their chair and go look for an African American woman in the 70s? Probably nobody. Times changed. So did technology and the tenacity of investigators. We gave her name back, and it's probably one of the most fulfilling moments in law enforcement that I think I've ever experienced. I put murders in jail. I put rapists in jail. But this one, just some reason, I guess because she's so long forgotten. But not by Isaac and the few family members who remained back in Greenwood. There's a bit of sadness that that she had to go that way. It just resolved a lot of questions we had, you know, so I could give, you know, everyone else the answer.

16:17 Currently working with the Mississippi State Legislature on a new bill that could create a database of missing people and cold cases so people like Clara will never be forgotten again. Thank you for tuning in to No Tears for Black Girls. This series is skillfully crafted by acclaimed writer and producer Jon Reedberg with the guidance of unapologetic host Samantha Paul. Catch new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday on all major podcast platforms. You can listen anywhere, anytime, and if you truly enjoy our content, please leave a 5 star rating and positive review. Remember to stay loved, stay blessed, and stay safe.